Hello, haven't been here for a while. 8 and a half months post-op, I'm still having severe sciatic pain on my left side in the buttocks area. No pain in the legs no numbness, just severe pain in the buttocks. And having problems for sitting for long periods of time. I seen my surgeon a couple months ago about this problem, and he said well after a year If the back is fully fused he can go in there and take the hardware out. I don't really know what that would be a good idea. He says he's done that in about 40% of his patients that complain of back problems after surgery. Maybe some of the hardware is rubbing on a nerve. Why don't they take care of these things when he was operating on me? I mean sciatica is such a common problem even with people without surgery so I'm wondering what the heck it is? I'm going to hold out for a year like he wants me to, and after that I want to request a CAT scan or an MRI. Anyone else have these problems that long after surgery? Thanks in advance.

[QUOTE=Titchou;5490866]I had to have hardware removed after a big toe fusion.Two screws were rubbing on nerves. They had to wait a year also. It's more common than you think. Sometimes they just need to be removed.[/QUOTE]

Bummer, that's not what I wanted to hear. But thanks for sharing. Did your pain go away after they took the hardware out?

Not sure what you mean by recover...from the surgery or the pain going away. Surgery was seriously like having a hangnail cut off. Other than having to wear the surgical shoe till the sutures were removed it was a nothing event. One screw location was pretty immediate. I would say 75% that became 100% over 6 months. The one that still has some issue took about a year to get where it is now. But it was under the big toe so is always being pressed on when walking. The pivot issue I just deal with when walking because it rarely happens. It happens more often when dancing or wearing dress heels. Sincce I already know that I put lidocaine cream on it and a gauze pad and that works fine.

Removing screws from a spinal fusion are not that simple, I’m afraid. First there is always the involved risk when going in around spinal nerves....and they should be more or less able to tell if there is a screw coming in contact with a nerve from MRI imaging or a bone scan...but, no, it is 100% accurate!

I believe I told you before about having sciatic like pain across sacrum and in left “hip” until between 16-18 months post surgery.(L3-S1 posterior fusion). And then it mostly went away. (I will never be completely symptom-free.)

Also it is very difficult to know for sure where pain is coming from....”sciatica” may be common but the term is really used by most lay people to describe a particular type of pain that can stem from a variety of causes.

After my initial fusion at L4-5 I continued to have horrendous sciatic pain that ran down one or both legs. All symptoms pointed to a problem at L5-S1...but when the surgeon went in to operate, he found only slight issues there but major problems with the facet joints at L3...ie., they had worn away to tiny little nubs that were causing major instability. This didn’t show up in any testing for some inexplicable reason!

It is also common to develop it from poor structural alignment...tight fascia, muscle imbalances, etc. post surgical procedures.

Again, I sound like a broken record, but if I were you, I would get a new MRI and not wait for the one year timeframe.

[QUOTE=teteri66;5490894]Removing screws from a spinal fusion are not that simple, I’m afraid. First there is always the involved risk when going in around spinal nerves....and they should be more or less able to tell if there is a screw coming in contact with a nerve from MRI imaging or a bone scan...but, no, it is 100% accurate!

I believe I told you before about having sciatic like pain across sacrum and in left “hip” until between 16-18 months post surgery.(L3-S1 posterior fusion). And then it mostly went away. (I will never be completely symptom-free.)

Also it is very difficult to know for sure where pain is coming from....”sciatica” may be common but the term is really used by most lay people to describe a particular type of pain that can stem from a variety of causes.

After my initial fusion at L4-5 I continued to have horrendous sciatic pain that ran down one or both legs. All symptoms pointed to a problem at L5-S1...but when the surgeon went in to operate, he found only slight issues there but major problems with the facet joints at L3...ie., they had worn away to tiny little nubs that were causing major instability. This didn’t show up in any testing for some inexplicable reason!

It is also common to develop it from poor structural alignment...tight fascia, muscle imbalances, etc. post surgical procedures.

Again, I sound like a broken record, but if I were you, I would get a new MRI and not wait for the one year timeframe.[/QUOTE]

Well I am not to tickled pink about having another surgery to get Hardware out. And I'm not going to do anything hasty either. Common sense is that the more you get cut open the more problems you are going to have. And even though the surgeon said that after the spine is fused the hardware is strictly cosmetic. I kind of find that hard to believe. The Hardware's got to help with stability to some extent. So I don't see a reason to taking it out unless it is rubbing on a nerve. I'll know more after I have an MRI and maybe also a CAT scan as well. If he doesn't want to give those to me then I'll go to another doctor and requested it. I hope you're right that maybe I just need more time. We'll see after a year. I've already had one cortisone shot in the S1 area which did very little to relieve the sciatic pain. It was very short-lived couple weeks of relief, and then back to sciatic pain. I've taken 25 lb's off and I do physical therapy stretching every single day and walk. I don't know what else I can do. And furthermore I might have to start turning some music jobs down because I just can't go out there and man handle the drums anymore. We'll see. Other than that the rest of the back feels pretty good. It's just that stinking sciatic in my buttocks. Nothing down the leg, no tingling, no numbness, just a sciatic in the left buttock area.

You might look for a bodywork therapist who does myofascial release techniques. If the “sciatic” pain doesn’t run lower than the buttocks, maybe the pain is being caused by focal adhesions or a trapped piriformis...or something similar...might be a muscle imbalance putting off your structural alignment.